Being "properly disposed" and divorce

The Church teaches that those who wish to receive Holy Communion must be "properly disposed." There are three explicit requirements and two implicit ones. The explicit requirements are:

1. The person must not be aware of having committed any serious sin.
2. The person must have fasted at least one hour prior to receiving Holy Communion.
3. The person must not have received Holy Communion more than once previously on the same day.

The implicit requirements are:

1. The person must be a Roman Catholic.
   
2. The person must have been a full, conscious, and active participant during the Mass at which they wish to receive Holy Communion.

So why is there often a lot of hoopla about divorced Catholics not being able to receive Holy Communion? There is some basis for this, but there is also a lot of misunderstanding about it.

       People who are living in a civil marriage that is not also a sacramental marriage run afoul of the first explicit requirement: they are deemed to be living in a state of serious sin, and that sin is unchastity — they are living in a (presumably) sexual union with someone who the Church doesn't recognize as their sacramentally-married spouse. 

       This commonly applies to divorced Catholics who remarried outside of the Church. Note that it also applies even to Catholics in their first marriage if their marriage did not take place in the Church. It does not apply, however, to divorced Catholics who have not remarried, and it does not apply to Catholics who have had prior marriages annulled and had their current marriage brought into the Church.

       The short-run solution to this is to sacramentally confess one's sinfulness prior to receiving Holy Communion. However, the long-run solution (which most confessors will encourage) is to bring one's marriage into the Church.